Yahoo! Web Hosting Provider, to Enter into Global Microsoft Deal

Sunnyvale, California - (The Hosting News) - July 29, 2009 - Web hosting provider, Yahoo!, and Microsoft will enter into an agreement that is designed to improve the web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry.

According to information released by the companies, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers. Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world's favorite online destinations and Web products.

Carol Bartz, Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! noted, "This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development. Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences."

For web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies' complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft's competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for Web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!'s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft's search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft added, "Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company. Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we've created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there's so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

Roy Bostock, Chairman, Yahoo! Inc. remarked, "This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world's leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal. This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future."

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!'s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;
• Microsoft's Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft's AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter's automated auction process;
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;
• Yahoo! will innovate and "own" the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;
• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!'s network of both owned and operated (O and O) and affiliate sites;
  • Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!'s O and O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and
  • Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!'s O and O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;
• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and
• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

The agreement does not cover each company's web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies' businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The agreement entered into today anticipates that the parties will enter into more detailed definitive agreements prior to closing. Microsoft and Yahoo! expect the agreement to be closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators, and welcome questions. The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.

Web Hosting Dedicated Servers with 10TB Free Bandwidth, Offered by The Planet

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 29, 2009 - Global IT hosting provider, The Planet, is offering a promotion that includes 10TB of bandwidth at no additional cost to new dedicated server orders, for a limited time.

The promotion, which ends July 31, applies to servers hosted in the company's world-class Houston and Dallas data centers. The free bandwidth offer can be combined with current special pricing on The Planet's dedicated servers, starting from $69.

Urvish Vashi, general manager of dedicated hosting at The Planet remarked, "By extending this promotion to virtually every server in our product portfolio, customers with any size business or budget can benefit. We continue to invest in our hosting infrastructure, adding network points of presence on the East and West coasts; broadening the company footprint with an eighth data center in London; and increasing transit capacity to our seven Tier 1 network providers. By extending this promotion to virtually every server in our product portfolio, customers with any size business or budget can benefit."

The offer is available on standard dedicated servers, excluding Monster configurations and Ready To Go Servers®. For more information, please visit www.theplanet.com/10TB-Bandwidth.

The Planet is a provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24x7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses.

For additional information, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

The Planet Web Hosting Provider, Becomes Microsoft BizSpark Partner

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 30, 2009 - The Planet IT hosting provider, has joined the Microsoft BizSpark Program, where The Planet can provide early-stage startups with free Microsoft software, which otherwise may be unaffordable for certain companies.

As a gold-certified Microsoft partner, The Planet offers the program to qualified companies through its status as an official Network Partner and Hosting Provider. Eligibility requirements, as outlined by Microsoft, are simple and direct. Companies must be actively engaged in the development of a software-based product or service; the company must be privately held and in business for less than three years; and it must generate less than U.S. $1 million in annual revenue.

Urvish Vashi, general manager for The Planet's Dedicated Servers line of business offered, "Both The Planet and Microsoft are committed to lowering the barrier to entry for small and emerging companies,. As entrepreneurs develop business plans and face the stark reality of start-up costs, they look to save money so they're able to preserve hard-fought capital for their development resources, particularly in today's difficult economic environment. Coupled with a hosting solution from The Planet, the BizSpark program offers extraordinary value."

The BizSpark program provides qualified start-ups with access to vast resources that would otherwise be unavailable to emerging companies:

• Software: Companies gain access to full-featured development tools, including Visual Studio Team System, plus production licensing for Windows Server and SQL Server. The only fee is a $100 program offering, payable to Microsoft at the end of participation in the program.
• Support: BizSpark provides professional technical support from Microsoft, connecting participants to a global community of business experts who can help guide start-up companies through the hurdles of growing a business.
• Visibility: Companies gain global visibility to audiences of potential investors, clients and partners.

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24x7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network.

For additional information, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

Layered Technologies Named to Leading Industry Analyst Firm’s Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Hosted Cloud System Infrastructure Services

Plano, Texas – Layered Technologies, Inc. (Layered Tech), a leading worldwide provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, today announced that it has been named to the Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Hosted Cloud System Infrastructure Services (On Demand)” published July 2, 2009, and written by Gartner analysts Lydia Leong and Ted Chamberlin.

According to the Gartner report which evaluated 16 companies overall, “The Web hosting market is evolving rapidly and converging with cloud system infrastructure services, creating new opportunities for cost savings and business agility.” Gartner based its 2009 evaluation on five use cases for hosting: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, global solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

“There are hundreds of hosting companies, so Layered Tech is particularly pleased to be named to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant because we believe that industry recognition like this validates the strategies we have been implementing during the past year,” said Layered Tech CEO Jack Finlayson. “Layered Tech is committed to delivering a broad range of managed solutions to our customers. As a technology innovator, we continue to enhance our solution set while broadening our roadmap to include automated solutions that support our customers’ evolving needs.”

Layered Tech offerings introduced during the past year include:

• Launch of Astro, Layered Tech’s proprietary platform for rapid server deployment
• The deployment of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 to Astro for rapid server deployments broadening the existing portfolio which includes Linux and Unix operating systems
• Expanding Astro offerings to include Virtual Firewall Solutions from Fortinet
• Expansion of its DEFCON managed services to include virtual machines

About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009, by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis on how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Layered Tech

Layered Technologies, Inc. is a leading global provider of on-demand hosting and utility computing solutions whose infrastructure powers millions of sites and Internet enabled applications including e-Commerce, Software as a Service (“SaaS”), content distribution and more.

Layered Technologies enables customers to forego capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues. Clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world’s largest consultancy and integration firms.

For more information, visit www.layeredtech.com.

• COMPARE >> Virtual Private Server (VPS @ $49/mo) to Virtual Private Data Center (VPDC @ $349/mo)
• Hosted Grid-based VPS starting at $49/month >>

Lunarpages Advances Virtual Private Server Offering; Leverages Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to Power Hosted Solution

HERNDON, Va., July 21, 2009 — Virtualization and automation leader Parallels, today announced that Lunarpages, a leading Web hosting company, is leveraging Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to deliver its customers Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting services. The solution is available on both Windows and Linux servers and provides a cost effective solution for businesses that have outgrown shared hosting, and do not need the full capacity of a dedicated server.

“Parallels, and Parallels Containers in particular, contribute significantly to sales conversions and support,” said Amy Armitage, Director of Business Development at Lunarpages. “In the last month alone, Lunarpages has seen an increase of 55% in VPS sales and a 43% increase for the previous two-months. We attribute the growth to Parallels robust VPS container solution and also their commitment to service and support, such as helping Lunarpages improve its Web site.”

VPS gives companies more control and flexibility of their outsourced Web sites and Web applications — allowing users to install applications and gain direct access to the underlying operating system, but at a more affordable price than getting an entire dedicated server. End-users will now be able to run needed applications, multiple domains, Web sites and configure a customized VPS while Lunarpages manages the complex operating systems and hardware maintenance.

Lunarpages is utilizing technology enabled through Parallels Virtuozzo Containers with the Parallels Plesk Panel inside. Parallels Containers create isolated virtual environments or “containers” on a single physical server and OS instance — data is protected and isolated from everyone else. The technology also has burstable memory so the user can scale-up performance as needed. When used with the Parallels Plesk Panel, the user is presented with a single seamless interface to manage both the control panel and virtual private server simultaneously.

“Parallels’ virtualization software together with Lunarpage’s dedicated support, is ideal for SMBs and resellers that require more server space and enhanced scalability than standard shared hosting plans provide,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Service Provider Division at Parallels. “This aggressively priced VPS plan comes with fully managed hardware and operating systems and delivers high-capacity functionality for growing businesses.”

###

About Lunarpages

Lunarpages Web Hosting launched in 1998 in order to provide affordable and reliable hosting for personal websites, small business, ecommerce shops, Fortune 100 corporations, dedicated customers, and more. Lunarpages hosts the biggest and the best in the industry, utilizing the knowledge that has made us the largest web host in the world. Since 1998, Lunarpages has tailored each web hosting solution to fit the unique needs of its clientele, ensuring that every level webmaster can build, design, and launch their businesses and projects with our help every step of the way. For more information, visit http://www.lunarpages.com/virtual-private-server/.

About Parallels — Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 650 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

Hosted Grid-based VPS starting at $49/month >>

Hosting Providers Offered Microsoft Communication Services Partner Program

New Orleans, Louisiana - (The Hosting News) - July 28, 2009 - At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09), Microsoft Corp. announced the global availability of partner program to help hosting providers and their resellers market hosted unified communications to small and midsize business (SMB) customers.

Microsoft Communication Services provides a common set of marketing collateral and the ability to utilize the Microsoft brand beyond individual product brands for better recognition in the SMB marketplace. The initiative is open to Microsoft partners that have attained the Hosting Solutions competency, part of the broader Microsoft Partner Network. John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software plus Services Industry team for the Communications Sector at Microsoft, will outline Microsoft Communication Services and its benefits to hosting providers and their resellers in a software-plus-services breakout session today titled "Bringing It All Together Across MS Online Services, Partner Hosted and Windows Azure."

Mr. Zanni noted, "SMBs are increasingly interested in communication and collaboration tools to improve productivity and reduce costs. The majority of customers in the SMB segment want to purchase Microsoft Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Office Communications Server services from companies that package these offerings. With Microsoft Communication Services, hosting providers and their resellers are speaking the language of their customers."

Microsoft Communication Services was designed with Comcast, the leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services in the U.S., to help enable service providers to offer higher-margin services, create customer loyalty and become a trusted advisor. Collateral and guidance focuses on marketing a solution of collaborative hosted services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Microsoft-branded collateral includes demo videos, marketing guidance and telesales scripts.

Also, today Microsoft announced that Outsourcery Ltd. (formerly Genesis Communications Ltd.), a U.K. hosting and communications provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, will use Microsoft Communication Services in the United Kingdom, enabling it to better market Microsoft-branded solution bundles to its customers.

Mark Seemann, Product Strategy Director at Outsourcery added, "Outsourcery is delighted to be involved in the launch of Microsoft Communication Services to U.K. SMBs. We've found that the Microsoft brand name resonates very well with our SMB customers, and that Microsoft Communication Services allows us to talk about entire solutions rather than just individual products. This alliance is totally aligned with our business strategy to become Europe's No. 1 outsourced IT and unified communications provider for Microsoft-hosted solutions."

Microsoft and Comcast piloted the program in November 2007, helping Comcast market business-class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing to its SMB customers. To date, Comcast has more than 100,000 e-mail users on Microsoft Hosted Exchange. Based on the success of the pilot for Comcast and its customers, Microsoft will now offer Microsoft Communication Services worldwide to all its hosting partners.

Bill Stemper, President, Comcast Business Services remarked, "Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast is an integral part of our Business Class Internet service and truly differentiates us from our competition. Not only does it help small-business owners be more productive but it also helps them save money by dramatically reducing their need for communication servers and IT support."

Information on how to find a certified hosting partner is available at www.microsoft.com/hosting/catalogs/reseller/private-label-hosting.mspx. More information about announcements at WPC is available at www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/default.aspx. More information on Outsourcery is available at www.outsourcery.co.uk. More information on Comcast is available at http://business.comcast.com/internet/business-tools.aspx.

To learn more about Microsoft Communication Services, please visit: www.partner.microsoft.com/communicationservices.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SoftLayer Listed in Web Hosting, Cloud Infrastructure Services Magic Quadrant

Dallas, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 8, 2009 - The Gartner Magic Quadrant for ''Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Services (On-Demand),'' written by Gartner analysts Lydia Leong and Ted Chamberlain, includes SoftLayer Technologies as a ''Niche Player.''

Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer noted, ''In my opinion, being evaluated in this report is proof that our unique approach is redefining hosting. Of course, our greatest pride and core goal is to provide solutions and scalability that make an impact on our customers' business. But to me, being in the Magic Quadrant shows that we're making a difference throughout the industry.''

SoftLayer has consistently built an effective solution through the complete integration of multiple IT environments - both in-house and outsourced - through a common management console and provisioning system. The firm has established a record of innovation and thought leadership that includes multiple industry firsts: Private Network for managing servers; fully featured and integrated portal; and a standards oriented and fully featured API. Most recently, SoftLayer launched a set of cloud services that include:

• CDN
• Storage
• Computing

All of these are available as standalone services (i.e. no dedicated server required) as well as being fully integrated with all other SoftLayer offerings. SoftLayer Also offers hourly billing for its CloudLayer Computing platform, which is available across all SoftLayer data centers.

Each company in the Magic Quadrant was evaluated on its completeness of vision and ability to execute within five use cases: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, and global.

solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

George Karidis, Chief Strategy Officer at SoftLayer noted, ''We truly are a different breed. Our on-demand data services provide far more than hosting, and our commitment to fully automated solutions and complete customer access and control really moves us out of either the managed or unmanaged categories. With each offering we introduce, we're not just extending our portfolio - we're transforming how those services are provided. And I'm excited about the new ideas we have on the way.''

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted July 2, 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the Leaders' quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

To learn more, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Demowolf - New Tutorials Released! HostingCon, Twitter, etc...

Demowolf released 46 new tutorials for the latest version of the WHMCS billing system, version 4. These new tutorials are split into 3 separate series, with the "end-user" series replacing our old WHMCS 3 tutorials.

All tutorials (including these new ones, and all 3,300+ other ones) can be viewed from our Hosting Tutorials page at: http://www.demowolf.com/pricing.php. Voice versions of these new tutorials will be available within a couple of weeks.

When purchased, these tutorials will be branded with your own company logo in the first and last frame of every tutorial. Adding DemoWolf support tutorials to your website will greatly reduce your support costs, as your customers will be able to get the help they need themselves instead of calling you. They will also serve as an added benefit... a service you give to your customers.


HostingCon 2009
For the 3rd consecutive year, we will be attending and exhibiting at HostingCon. This year HostingCon 2009 is in Washington, DC from August 10-12 at the Gaylord National Convention Center. Learn about all the new things we have planned for the coming year... or just drop by to say hi! Both Lisa and I will be there, and we'll be at booth 318.


Twitter
You can now follow DemoWolf on Twitter! All new DemoWolf tutorial releases and news announcements will be announced through twitter in addition to our regular method of sending email announcements. To follow us on twitter, go to http://twitter.com/demowolf.


Custom Tutorials
If you have any custom requirements that involve more than just replacing the logo in the first and last frame of the tutorials... perhaps you want full custom tutorials for your own particular software application or website... we can help! We build tutorials with or without voice audio, text boxes, background music, interactivity, and they can be screenshot type tutorials, presentations, demonstrations, slideshows, or any combination of these. Contact us today for a free, no obligation quote.

EIRCA Ltd unveils The Genius Network, new product lines

Shelburne, Nova Scotia - July 8, 2009 - EIRCA Ltd, the multi-platform managed web hosting service provider, has unveiled its new infrastructure, named "The Genius Network™", a core platform based on cloud computing, spread across multiple locations with multiple layers of redundancy.

"The Genius Network is a combination of Cloud Computing, standard-breaking and fully redundant hardware, incredible network connectivity and redundancy across three locations," according to CEO and Founder of EIRCA Ltd, Simon O'Rourke.

The new infrastructure has been rolled out officially by the company as of July 8th, 2009, and is a core component of the company's existing shared, reseller, and managed dedicated hosting product lines.

With the introduction of The Genius Network, EIRCA Ltd has also added VPS, and various cloud based services to the product line.

"Unlike many offerings within the market, most of which are single-network and with multiple points of potential failure, The Genius Network is fully redundant, faster than any of our competitors, more modern than our competitors, and more secure," commented O'Rourke, "Better yet, we won't raise the price of our service offerings in order to bring this to the market".

About EIRCA Ltd.
EIRCA Ltd. (http://www.eirca.net/). The mission of establishing EIRCA Ltd. has been premium technical support and complete automation. The company is best known for its specific dedication to multi-platform hosting services. To find out more on EIRCA Ltd. or The Genius Network™, please visit http://www.eirca.net

Note: Eirca's website is not mentioning Parallels HELM as a control panel add-on option for the cloud servers, but you can ask for it as Eirca is reselling SOFTLAYER's cloud offerings.

The Planet Galvanizes Dedicated Hosting Demand; Partners with Parallels to Offer One-Month Free "Hosting-in-a-Box" Bundle

Promotion Delivers Resellers and Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Complete Hosting Solution to Maximize Revenue

HERNDON, Va., July 6, 2009 – Automation and virtualization leader Parallels, today announced that The Planet, the global leader in IT Hosting, will offer its hosting reseller channel a special bundled offering that combines Parallels Plesk Panel, together with Parallels Plesk Billing. The promotion also delivers to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a free bundled promotion that includes Parallels Panel with 100 domains, in addition to The Planet’s Alpha Monitoring service. The promotion, which launches July 6, 2009, offers the Parallels bundle free of charge, for one-month. It is available on all dedicated servers, and includes 24/7 server and service monitoring.

“The Planet and Parallels are committed to helping resellers increase hosting revenues,” said Urvish Vashi, general manager of The Planet’s Dedicated Servers line of business. “Few companies are in a position to offer a promotion of this significance. Combining the power of Parallels Panel and Parallels Billing, with The Planet’s enterprise-quality data centers and network, ensures our reseller channel has access to the most competitive and the best technology available today.”

The promotion provides The Planet’s reseller channel with a dedicated hosting solution targeted specifically to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Details for the reseller and SMB promotions can be found at: http://www.theplanet.com/parallels-plesk-offer. The robust solution combines Parallels Plesk Panel – an integrated hosting automation control panel software, with Parallels Plesk Billing. Parallels Panel is the only control panel that gives users direct availability to hundreds of applications via the Application Packaging Standard (APS). Parallels Plesk Billing automates billing operations and is designed specifically for any business that needs recurring billing support– from taking orders, provisioning services, managing invoices and collecting payments.

Each server automation application shares a seamless interface, ensuring end-users can easily navigate and perform tasks quickly. The advanced bundle gives resellers and their customers an intuitive, easy-to-use Web-based managed hosting solution.

“The Parallels Plesk Panel bundle presents the ideal path to generate IT revenue, particularly in today’s difficult economic environment,” said Jack Zubarev, President, Service Provider Division, Parallels. “Parallels and The Planet created the dedicated server promotion to ensure resellers are armed with the best dedicated hosting service, at the best price-point. These applications are designed to allow anyone to setup their system in minutes and begin selling immediately.”

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 17.8 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting™ and data center colocation, all backed by 24×7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses. For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com.

About Parallels — Optimized Computing

Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

Parallels Helm 4.1.1 Available

SOURCE: Web Host Automation Forums
http://forums.webhostautomation.com


Dear Helm Users,

A new updated version of Parallels Helm is available for download, this new version introduces a set of new features including support of APS standard, an application packaging standard that allows to extend the hosting offerings with more than 150 applications, additional features has been also included and the stability of Helm improved.

Release Date: 6 of May 2009
Version Release: 4.1.1

New Features:

• APS Controller, which enables provisioning APS applications: Thanks to this new feature service providers can include in their server offerings hundreds of applications packaged with APS Standard, the list of available applications can be obtained from APS Standard catalog on this link.
  

• Added ability to set default login language other than English.
  To set default CP language:
  1. Go to Helm System > Control Panel Settings page.
  2. Select a default language next to the Language.
  3. Save changes.

• Added possibility to test notifications without sending them to customers directly. The Test and save button was added to the Edit Action Notification Template page. If you click this button, the notification will be saved and sent to the current account. Notifications of Child Created Customer and Delete Customer type cannot be tested because of their specific characteristics.

• Added possibility to create virtual directory which points to physical directory outside of site document root. This directory can be shared between different virtual hosts. To create a virtual directory:
  1. Go to Add Plan Template.
  2. Specify the template name and template resources.
  3. Save the template.
  4. On the page that appears, click Add in the Provisioning Method section.
  5. Choose the Create Physical Virtual Directory method from the drop-down box.
  6. Specify Folder to point to property.
  Virtual directory created this way cannot be removed from a Virtual Directories page of a domain.

• For IIS 7 providers added possibility to switch between x64 and x32 mode for the particular application pool. It means that you can configure some application pool(s) to work in x32 while other will be in x64 at the same time. To specify the mode:
  1. Go to My Domains > > Advanced Website Options > Website Settings page.
  2. Choose the Application Pool tab.
  3. On the page that appears in the Bittness combo box, choose the x32 or x64 mode. If you see the Unknown/Not applicable value, it means that your backend system doesn't support the bittness option.
  4. Click Save.

• Implemented an option to enable/disable write permissions under customer’s home directory which means the ability of anonymous user to make write changes (create files or directories, modify existing files) in a particular domain directory tree. To enable/disable write permissions for a particular domain:
  1. Go to My Domains > > Advanced Website Options > Website Settings page.
  2. Choose the Options tab.
  3. Check/uncheck the Grant "Write" access for Anonymous User box.

• Added an option of choosing a Database name prefix property for MSSQL or MySQL service. Now it is possible to choose between the following database name prefixes:
  * Nothing - no prefix will be used during database creation.
  * DomainName - domain name will be used as a prefix during database creation. Dots in the domain name will be replaced with an underscore symbol in the prefix.
  * AccountName - account name will be added as a prefix during database creation.
  
  Changing this value does not affect existing databases. The Database Name Prefix option can be controlled by admin/reseller only (user has no possibility to choose how the database will be created). For existing database services, admin/reseller should perform the Save action to propagate new service settings into database (even if it wasn’t changed).

• Added control over Enable POP retrieval option for SmarterMail mail server which will allow you to access email on another mail server through SmarterMail. To enable SmarterMail POP Retrieval:
  1. Go to SmarterMail Provider Services page.
  2. Enter necessary Custom Domain Properties (semicolon delimited key/value pairs) which will be passed as custom properties to SmarterMail server when SmarterMail service is enabled for a particular domain. By default the value is set to "enablepopretrieval=True". For a complete list of supported properties, refer to SmarterMail documentation.
  3. Save the changes.
  
  The behavior can be controlled only by admin/reseller. For existing SmarterMail services, admin/reseller should perform the Save action to propagate new service settings into Helm database (even if it was not changed). There is no way to enable Pop Retrieval feature for existing domains in Helm without re-enabling the mail service.

• Introduced Shared data processing into Overusage Notification engine. To configure your Parallels Helm to process Shared Data:
  1. Go to Account Settings > Action Notifications page.
  2. On the page that appears, create new or edit an exisitng Overusage notification.
  3. Check the Process Shared data box on the Generic tab of the Edit Action Notification Template page.
  4. Go to the Internal Notification tab and change the following values:
  * [$PackageLimit.Value] to [$PackageLimit.SharedValue]
  * [$PackageLimit.UsagePercent] to [$PackageLimit.SharedUsagePercent].
  5. Save the changes.

Improvements:

• Added MySQL 5.1 support.
• Added ability to stop uploading files if reaching disk space limit for GeneFTP providers.
• Merak disk space and bandwidth usage are included in statistics.

Issues Fixed:

• Fixed problem with Helm API and Turkish locale. (HLM-1775)
• Fixed bug with creating an Email Alias that has all numeric values preceeding the "@" symbol in an email address. (HMSM-84)
• Fixed problem with IIS password on IIS 6. (HMWEIISP-12)
• Fixed problem with unassigning Module in License Web Services. (HLM-1757)
• Fixed problem with MySQL5 on a port different from the standard. (HMMYSQLFIVE-35)
• Fixed problem with tag text and CSS styling in the HTML field for notification. (HLM-1127)
• Fixed problem with backup DNS after re-enabling DNS. (HMMSDNSS-4)
• Fixed problem with FP extensions and "Integrated Windows Authentication". (HMWEFP-8)
• Fixed problem with creating domains using Simple DNS. (HMSDNS-18)
• Fixed the System Diskspace and Bandwidth Tasks error handling. (HLM-1459)
• Fixed bug with admin level permissions under reseller account. (HLM-1598)
• Fixed wording and behaviour of SQL Server dbo option. (HLM-1756)
• Fixed bug with empty resource list in the package. (HLM-1768)
• Fixed creating subdomain problem when Simple DNS is used. (HLM-1721)
• Fixed server logs deletion. (HLM-50)
• Bugfixes and improvements: A number of issues reported by the customers, detected by support team and discovered on QA stage were fixed, multiple other bugfixes and improvements were made.

Release notes with installation and upgrade instructions for this new version can be found here

Installation Instructions

Please download the Parallels Helm 4.1.1 installation package and follow the installation instructions according to the Parallels Helm 4.1.1 documentation in the Installation and Configuration section.

Upgrade Instructions

4.0.x to 4.1.1 Upgrade

1. The upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1 requires a valid license with Upgrade Protection, or, in terms of Parallels licensing, a license that provides Software Update Service (SUS) which entitles you to version upgrade licenses throughout the life of your SUS. Read more about SUS: http://www.parallels.com/en/support/sus.
   You can validate your license by going to the Parallels Helm member area: http://www.webhostautomation.com/members.
   If you have a license without SUS, go to http://www.parallels.com/store/support/helm/ and reinstate your license. Otherwise, you will not be able to upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1
2. Download the Parallels Helm 4.0 to 4.1.1 Upgrade Tool from the following location: http://helm.download.webhostautomati...pgradeTool.exe.
3. Run the tool and follow its instructions.

4.1 to 4.1.1 Upgrade

1. Launch the Configuration Tool.
   The Configuration Tool should indicate in the left bottom corner that a new version is available. If there is no indication, make sure that the current version of Configuration Tool is 4.1.1.xxxx.
2. Click the link in the left bottom corner of the Configuration Tool to upgrade it to the latest version.
3. Launch the updated Configuration Tool.
4. Tab to Software Updates, and click Update Now.
5. If anything goes wrong, check the install.log file located in the Helm installation directory.